As some of you might know, I spent my college years in Richmond, Virginia, toiling away organizing VCU’s nerd community and, eventually, becoming this blog’s first intern in my senior year. While there was the occasional ANAMANAGUCHI show, or that one time Inverse Phase and a_rival came to visit, it always seemed like Richmond had all sorts of independent music happening EXCEPT the electronic kind. Little did I know that had I dug just a little deeper in my final years in that city, I’d have found what I was looking for by way of a few music collectives and one particular guy by the name of Jeremy Belcher, better known as F1NG3RS. Now, you might be wondering why I’m trying to talk to you about people in a city that 97% of you guys will under normal circumstances never visit. If you are, I’d like to point to New York City in the early 00’s, or Philly and Boston over the last decade, or even Los Angeles over the past few years and what started from just a couple shows into what have blossomed into full-blown scenes. If you’ll pardon the extension of the plant metaphor, the only way a scene can take root and thrive is through careful cultivation – and just like a flower that needs more light to live, so too do tiny scenes if they’re going to take off.
Before we get too far into this, I’d like to give a special thanks to Daniel Davis – he put in some real legwork right after I had left Richmond to look into what the city had to offer, so much of the following is thanks to talks we had and people I met because of him.
REC: Richmond Electronic Collective
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: An electronic music lover puts together a collection of nerds to make a compilation album which then spawns a large internet following and live events. No, I’m not talking about us, I’m talking about Steve Owen, the man behind REC, one of Richmond’s two major groups for this kind of thing. REC has only been around since 2012, but has already spawned monthly shows at one of Richmond’s most renowned music-friendly bars, The Camel, as well as three compilations with a fourth on the way. I was able to get ahold of Steve to have him give me a brief rundown of how things came to be – and to help set the stage for our featured performer in this article, F1NG3RS. Steve’s story (with reference links where available) is as follows:
“Originally REC was a compilation album I started putting together early 2012. At the time I was playing in an electronic band called Silo Effect that did a bunch of Ableton Live type stuff and getting to know more and more local electronic musicians as a result. I always thought that it just was a matter of time before someone put all these guys on a release or did something with all this shit. There was too much talent here to go ignored, or to stay spaced out/disconnected to where no one really knows how much there is – I’d say that’s still true. So I figured, lemme start record keeping and take a permanent snapshot of what’s going on here, which was REC Vol. 1. My goal has always been for REC to be the Rolodex of original Richmond electronic music instead of a select crew or group, more of an umbrella for the whole thing. And I knew as an aspiring artist myself it would be a great way to meet people and get out there.
So, to be honest [the first artists were] mostly my friends – I was making a lot of beats with Jeremy Belcher (F1NG3RS). And I knew a few other producers like Dan Bowling (BWLR) and Evan Morris (Big Wave) who used to tour with Silo Effect. Then it was going to Soundcloud and Reverbnation and sorting by location: I probably found half of the artists on the first release just by contacting people on their pages and asking if they wanted to be on it, the rest were people I knew. REC Room came about shortly after – Jimmy Sneed, my now father-in-law and reputable chef had a restaurant called BlowToad across from the Byrd Theater in Carytown and I had booked a few shows for him. So in December the same year, with a lot of pressure from my drummer Bryan Reyes, we threw the first REC Room with F1NG3RS, BWLR, myself and a few others. We didn’t do another one until December of the next year 2013, which was at the Camel and with a decidedly better lineup. Evan & Dan did their collab set as SMOKO and we had Devonne Harris (DJ Harrison) who I knew from VCU music school. That show really put it through the roof, and made me realize this needed to keep happening. Somewhere in there, my buddies Adam Bonini (Crucializer) & Nathan Firster (DigiPossum) were doing live beatmaking sessions down at Canal Club once a month called REC Beat Squad. That eventually became REC Beat Cypher which we’ve brought back since REC Room went monthly in 2015.
2014 was the year it all came together though- that was when I met Jefferson Harris (BSTFRND), Jason Pevey (Sittasines) & Satellite Syndicate [Adam’s note: That’s the other Richmond music collective!]. Dan (BWLR) came to me one day freaking out because he had heard Sittasines. I saw he was from Richmond so we hit him up to do a REC Room. I think it was either his first show ever or his first venue show, but we were thrilled, the whole sound that night was on a new level. Evan (who back then was Hydrophonics) played as well as MahLion, another honorary REC executive committee member. I think I met Jefferson at that same show and got to know other guys in Satellite Syndicate like Chris Tait (Ozark) who introduced me to a whole new world of producers, younger guys like not even 21 yet- who I never would have met otherwise. They all trickled through, doing a REC Room or a house party, and each of them knew someone else, and I feel like it just exploded. We went from a show every few months at the beginning of the year to being once a month or even more. I remember one night, I think it was Halloween 2014, I was running back and forth from doing a Santa Kilmagik set at one house party in Jackson Ward to another on Hell Block. There was so much dope music everywhere, it was amazing. If you listen to REC Vol. 3 you can totally tell. And all of a sudden we’re now in our second year of a monthly residency at the Camel. REC Vol. 4 out…soon? Also, I’d like to give shouts to Dustin Klein (Videometry) for providing the top notch visuals REC Room is known for. He also used to work with Silo Effect, and his skills have always been central to the live events. Sam Roots (.oldneon), live projectionist for Satellite Syndicate has come on recently which adds a very different, more analog, VHS tape influenced style.”
So there you have it! If you’re ever in Richmond, the second Tuesday of every month is REC Room at The Camel. If you’ve got anxiety about going somewhere you don’t know anyone, don’t worry – Daniel Davis, Roger Hicks and Chris Connelly have been known to make appearances. It’s a much different feel there than some of the bigger events you might be used to – but it’s a nice, homey feeling, and usually very laid back. Hip hop beats are the name of the game in the RVA – but you’re more likely to hear more trip-hop-tempo beats than you are anything uptempo like the rock and metal inspired fare we see at MAGFest. But then again, if that sort of thing is your speed, that’s not to say you won’t have someone like…
F1NG3RS
Like so many of us, Jeremy came up through fandom – in his case, the Metal Gear fandom – and has since become a big name in his own right. Sporting an impressive backlog of videogame and anime remixes on his Soundcloud as well as being featured on the REC Room compilations Steve mentioned above, he’s also got two albums of original content: VGM and VGM 2: Surge of Shadows (which just dropped in January) – and while they may have VGM in the name, these are all original content. His first album was mastered by none other than DJ Cutman, who’s got a remix on that album as well, but it’s his new album I’d like to tell you about. The album showcases a number of different styles, sliding easily from the drum and bass-y eponymous track to the more hip hop flavored ‘Confrontation.’ This album is supposed to be about fighting the shadows, and you can tell from how dark most of these tracks sound – lots of open, echo-y parts followed up by deep, punchy bass. I both love and hate the track ‘Sewer Ghosts’ – the beat is great, but it has a squelchy wetness to it that’s like an auditory version of the word “moist.” Then again, I can’t imagine what else a sewer ghost would sound like, so I guess you could say Jeremy really put his…F1NG3R on it.
My favorite track on the album is ‘Struck Down’. I’m a big fan of tracks that build upon themselves (see: my favorite piece of orchestral music) and this track gives me all that and more – you’ve got fast and slow parts layered on top of each other moving separately but accomplishing the same musical meaning, the transitions from one loop to another are seamless and unlike my favorite orchestral piece, doesn’t sprawl on forever – it gets in, gives you what it wants to give you, and gets out.
F1NG3RS has also recently signed on to do music for a game called Sankofa, which is a project being done by some university students. Everything is currently in the early stages, so there’s not much to show as of yet, but Jeremy says that “[t]hat music is completely out of my normal range but it was fun. Lots of tribal sounds and textures.” VGM 1 and 2 have already proven that Jeremy is capable of jumping between styles without any issues, so I’m sure it’ll be something worth looking forward to!
There’s a whole lot more I’d like to tell you about Richmond’s electronic music scene, but there’s only a limited amount of time before they slap me with a tl;dr here – so I’ve included some links down here at the bottom for your convenience if you wanna explore what else RVA’s got to offer.
SEATS OUT.
\m|♥|m/
RVA Music Collectives
REC | Satellite Syndicate
F1NG3RS
Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Facebook | YouTube
